What are the differences between World Cities Database and World Major Cities Database?

In GeoDataSource, there are two commercial databases available, namely the World Cities Database and World Major Cities Database. World Cities Database contains the list of all cities, including counties, boroughs, towns and so on, in a text format that can be easily loaded in a database to be used by any application which requires a comprehensive list of country code, state/province, cities name, latitude, longitude, population and time zone. There are 6 editions of the database available for download with each containining different granularity of information. They are Free, Basic, Premium, Gold, Platinum and Titanium edition. You can visit https://www.geodatasource.com/world-cities-database to learn more about information provided by each edition. Anyway, below are the database fields for World Cities Database:

Field name

Description

region_code

Region Code. A code that determines the character mapping used in the full name field.

sub_region_code

Sub-Region Code. A sub division of region code.

ufi

Unique Feature Identifier. A number which uniquely identifies the feature. A feature with multiple names with shares a same feature identifier.

uni

Unique Name Identifier. A number which uniquely identifies a name.

dsg

Feature Designation Code. A two to five-character code used to identify the type of feature a name is applied to.

cc_fips

FIPS 10-4 Primary Country Code. A two alphabetic character FIPS 10-4 Primary Country Code uniquely identifying a geopolitical entity (countries, dependencies, and areas of special sovereignty).

cc_iso

ISO 3166 Primary Country Code. A two alphabetic character ISO 3166 Primary Country Code uniquely identifying a geopolitical entity (countries, dependencies, and areas of special sovereignty).

full_name

Feature’s Full Name. The full name is a complete city name which identifies the named feature. It is comprised of the specific name, generic name, and any articles or prepositions.

full_name_nd

Feature’s No Diacritics Full Name. Same as the full name but the diacritics and special characters are substituted with Roman characters.

sort_name

Feature’s Sort Name. A form of the full name which allows for easy sorting of the name into alpha-numeric sequence. It is comprised of the specific name, generic name, and any articles or prepositions. This field is all upper case with spaces, diacritics, and hyphens removed and numbers are substituted with lower case alphabetic characters.

adm1_code

First-Order Administrative Division Code. A two to three alphanumeric character code uniquely identifying a primary administrative division of a country, such as a state in the United States.

adm1_full_name

First-Order Administrative Division’s Full Name. The full name is a complete region name which identifies the first-order administrative division. It is comprised of the specific name, generic name, and any articles or prepositions.

adm2_code

Second-Order Administrative Division Code. The name of a subdivision of a second-order administrative division, or known as a county in the United States. (US only).

adm2_full_name

Second-Order Administrative Division’s Full Name. The full name is a complete name which identifies the second-order administrative division. It is comprised of the specific name, generic name, and any articles or prepositions. (US only)

latitude

Latitude in Decimal Degree. Latitude of the feature in ± decimal degrees (WGS84).

longitude

Longitude in Decimal Degree. Longitude of the feature in ± decimal degrees (WGS84).

population

City Population. Total number of human populations by estimation in the top 12,000 cities in the world.

time_zone

UTC Time Zone. The city’s UTC Time Zone

On the other hand, World Major Cities Database contains major cities globally that can be used by any application which requires a comprehensive list of country code and name, region/state/province name, city name, latitude, longitude and ZIP code. Below are the fields supported in World Major Cities Database:

Field name

Description

country_code

ISO 3166 Primary Country Code. A two alphabetic character ISO 3166 Primary Country Code uniquely identifying a geopolitical entity (countries, dependencies, and areas of special sovereignty).

country_name

ISO 3166 Primary Country Name. The full name of ISO 3166 Primary Country Name uniquely identifying a geopolitical entity (countries, dependencies, and areas of special sovereignty).

region_name

Region/State Full Name. The full name is a complete region name which identifies the first-order administrative division. It is comprised of the specific name, generic name, and any articles or prepositions.

city_name

City Full Name. The full name is a complete city name which identifies the named feature. It is comprised of the specific name, generic name, and any articles or prepositions.

latitude

Latitude in Decimal Degree. Latitude of the city in ± decimal degrees (WGS84).

longitude

Longitude in Decimal Degree. Longitude of the city in ± decimal degrees (WGS84).

zip_code

City ZIP Code. ZIP/Postal code of the city.

What are the differences between World Cities and World Major Cities database? Despite the differences in the database fields, the main differences between them lies in the cities information. World Cities Database comprises the list of all worldwide cities whereas World Major Cities Database only contains those highly populated cities. In other words, World Major Cities is actually a subset to the World Cities Database. If you are going to use the data for general or commercial purposes, such as the dropdown list of country-region for client’s selection, World Major Cities would be the recommended one.